I was introduced to Bang! over the 2009 holidays during the course of several get togethers with my childhood friends. More than anything, it was an instant addiction (apart from this other card game we played — the Munchkin series by Steve Jackson) and became integral to any sit down gathering we had in any living room.
Bang! is a western themed card game that assigns roles for up to 7 players: a sheriff, 2 deputy roles, four outlaws and one renegade. The sheriff and his deputies must defeat the outlaws while the outlaws must kill the sheriff to win. The renegade wins if he’s the last man standing. The catch is that nobody knows what role each player assumes, except the sheriff, who is publicly known.
Wikipedia explains it best:
The game is an interesting application of Game theory. As only the Sheriff is known, it is hard to know who has what role. Generally, a person’s role is implied if he tries to shoot, or otherwise harm, the Sheriff. Others’ role can be implied if they try to harm those who harmed the Sheriff. The advantage of keeping one’s role hidden from enemies must be weighted against the need to accomplish one’s goal.
Since the Renegade loses if the Sheriff dies when there are still others in the game he must defend the Sheriff to some extent. On the other hand his ultimate goal is killing the Sheriff. This leads to a “two faced” nature of the Renegade, trying to weaken each side (Outlaws and Deputies) while keeping the Sheriff alive until the end. This also makes it harder to ascertain who is an Outlaw, who is a Deputy, and who is a Renegade, as their actions may be similar. (source)
So little old me found out that there are over three expansion sets to Bang! and the whole package can be bought and enclosed in what’s known as The Bullet, a special edition casing that contains the complete game, and three expansion sets plus a sheriff badge for eye candy.
I finally got to play test this with a bunch of blog friends over at Aileen and Jay’s house and despite the first hurdle of explaining the entire game to seven other people, we had loads of fun. Definitely an addicting card game for any big group of friends (minimum 4 players). I’m not sure you can find the card game here in Manila, but you can do so via Amazon.
Bang! The Bullet costs USD $34.xx via Amazon.
